Manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes



March 27, 1962 D. w. MOLINS ETAL 3,026,879

MANUFACTURE OF MOUTHPIECE CIGARETTES Original Filed Jan. 18, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.1.

Ame/ver March 27, 1962 D. w. MOLINS ETAL 3,026,879

MANUFACTURE OF MOUTHPIECE CIGARETTES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Jan. 18, 1956 United States Patent MANUFACTURE OF MOUTHPIECE CIGARETTES Desmond Walter Molins and Norman Walter Jackson,

Deptford, London, England, assignors to Molins Machine Company Limited, London, England, a British company Original application Jan. 18, 1956, Ser. No. 559,946. Divided and this application Nov. 17, 1959, Ser. No. 853,523

Claims priority, application Great Britain Jan. 28, 1955 1 Claim. (Cl. 131-94) This invention concerns improvements in or relating to the manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes which are made by uniting lengths of wrapped cigarette rod with lengths of mouthpiece material by means of a uniting band which is wrapped and secured around the parts to be united.

The convenience a mouthpiece portion will hereinafter be referred to as a stub, which word shall be understood as including any portion (whether of the length required in a finished cigarette or double that length) of mouthpiece material that is suitable for incorporation in a mouthpiece cigarette, and may consist of a piece of filtering material, or a hollow tube, or any other suitable piece of material (including tobacco) that is different from the tobacco contained in the remainder of the cigarette, or any combination of the foregoing. Well-known examples of stubs are those often known as filter-tips," which are intended to filter the smoke. Stubs are often made of folded or bunched wads of paper enclosed in a wrapper.

Lengths of wrapped cigarette rod suitable for uniting with stubs, and each of a length suitable for an individual mouthpiece cigarette, will be referred to herein as cigarette lengths.

The expression double-length stub is to be understood as meaning a stub which is double the length required in an individual mouthpiece cigarette.

The present invention provides a method of feeding stubs in the manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes, which method comprises propelling stubs lengthwise in succession along a fixed guideway by means of air discharged against the stubs. Each stub so propelled by the air may be arrested and then engaged and moved in a different path by pusher-means.

The invention further provides stub-feeding apparatus comprising a fixed guideway for stubs, and means to discharge air against stubs on said guideway so as to propel them lengthwise in succession along the said guideway. The apparatus may comprise means to arrest each stub propelled lengthwise by the air, and means to engage each stub so arrested and move it in a dilferent path.

Apparatus in accordance with the invention will now be described by Way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of apparatus according to the invention,

FIGURE -2 is an elevation of part of the apparatus shown in FIGURE 1, and

FIGURE 3 shows a modification.

The apparatus illustrated is used in combination with an ordinary cigarette-making machine of the continuous rod type, in which, as is well known, a continuous wrapped cigarette rod is formed and fed lengthwise, and is cut at intervals to form cigarettes, or cigarette lengths as they are described herein. The apparatus is located beyond the cut-off of the cigarette making machine in such a way that the travel of the cigarette lengths while being assembled with stubs and formed into assemblages is in line with the cigarette rod.

Referring first to FIGURE 1, the cigarette rod coming from the cigarette machine (not shown) is cut into cigarette lengths by a cut-off device contained in a casing "ice marked 00. and these lengths are conveyed forwardly by a conveyor tape 101 and a pair of cables 102, the tape and cables being arranged to move faster than the rod so as to accelerate and separate the cigarette lengths. The speed of the tape and cables relative to the cigarette rod is such as to space the cigarette lengths a suflicient distance apart to enable a double-length stub to be inserted into the space behind every second cigarette length. Preferably this speed difference is such as to form spaces large enough to accommodate the longest double-length stubs that are likely to be used, so that the spacing will be more than adequate for shorter lengths. The speeds of the various parts of the machine can then remain constant no matter what length cigarettes are being made.

A stub-feeding device is arranged alongside the tape 1. This comprises a hopper 103 (FIGURE 2) to contain stub lengths, each length being six times the length required in a cigarette. These are fed into flutes in a group of rotatable discs 104, and knives (not shown) out each multiple length into three, each of which is a double length stub. These double-length stubs are transferred into the flutes of a fluted drum 105 by stepped hammers formed on three arms 1% which extend downwardly from a rock-shaft 107 which rocks the arms to and fro. At each forward stroke of the arms the hammers engage three stubs in three different flutes of the discs 104 and push them into three corresponding flutes of the drum 105. The operation of this device is similar to that of the stub-feeding device disclosed in the specification of United States patent application Serial No. 480,403, now abandoned.

Rotation of the drum 105 in the direction shown by the arrow, FIGURE 2, brings each flute in turn into its lowermost position in which it is immediately above a table or guideway 108, on to which each stub in turn is dropped.

A blowing device with a nozzle 109 arranged in line with the lowermost flute of the drum 105 is arranged to blow a jet of air endwise against each stub deposited on the table or guideway 108, so as to blow it lengthwise along the guideway. One such stub S is shown in FIG- URE 1 being blown lengthwise between side guides 109 and 110. An arcuate guide 111, FIGURE 1, guides the stubs in a curved path, and a brush 112. is located above this curved path and arranged to engage and arrest stubs momentarily.

A rotatable stub wheel 113, FIGURE 1, has a flat, radial surface 114 which engages a stub which has been arrested by the brush and carries it on to the tape 101. This wheel is timed to push a stub on to the tape between two spaced cigarette lengths, and places one stub immediately behind every second cigarette length which is carried along by the tape. The stub S shown in FIGURE 1 will in this way be moved into the space immediately behind the cigarette length L when the latter has moved to an appropriate position.

Since a brush such as 112 tends to wear with use, in an alternative arrangement a movable stop is provided instead of the brush 112. This alternative arrangement is illustrated in FIGURE 3. A pin 201 passes through a hole in the end of a lever 202 which is pivoted at 203. The lever carries a cam roller 204, which rides on a face cam 205. The cam 205 is arranged beneath the stub wheel 113 and rotates with it. Rotation of the cam causes the pin 201 to be moved a short distance up and down once during each revolution of the cam, and hence of the stub wheel 113. The table or guideway 108 is provided with an aperture through which the pin can rise so as to stand in the path of a stub which is being blown along the table, and so as to arrest the stub until the pushing surface 114 of the stub wheel reaches the stub. The timing of the cam is such that the pin is lowered out of the path of the stub at the moment when the pusher 114 is about to engage the rear end of the stub.

The pin 201 is held in position by an adjusting screw 206, and its lower end engages a compression spring 207 by which it is urged upwardly and the cam roller held against the cam 205. The movement of the pin can be such that it rises only a very short distance above the surface of the table 108, for example, it may project 1% mm. above the surface.

A transparent cover plate 208 (not shown in FIGURE 1) is mounted above the table 108, and in the arrangement shown in FIGURE 3 a small leaf spring 209 is fixed to the plate 208 and extends downwardly so as to press slightly on the stubs, and thus helps to control a stub which is arrested by the pin 201.

Thus groups are formed each consisting of two cigarette lengths with a stub between them. Such a group is shown in FIGURE 1, consisting of the cigarette lengths L L and stub S A series of pusher-elements consisting of lugs 116 on an endless chain 117 is provided to cause endwise abutment of the cigarette lengths and stub which form each of these groups. The chain passes over sprockets 118 and 119, the sprocket 118 being above and coaxial with the wheel 113. Each lug 116 in turn is moved into the path of the cigarette lengths on the tape 101 and moves along that path at the speed of the tape.

Means are provided for eausing'the leading cigarette length of a group, such as the length L in FIGURE 1, to be arrested'so that the stub behind it can overtake it, and the rearmost cigarette length, such as L can overtake the stub, thus causing endwise abutment. between these three parts, but these latter means need not be described here since they form no part of the present invention and are, moreover, fully described and illustrated in our co-pending United States application Serial No. 559,946, filed January '18, 1956, now Patent 2,912,987, of which this application is a division. The above-mentioned application also discloses the means whereby the groups are united and subdivided to form individual cigarettes.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

In apparatus for making mouthpiece cigarettes, means to convey cigarettes spaced apart endwise, and stub feeding means to feed stubs in succession and to insert successive stubs into spaces between ends of cigarettes, said stub feeding means including a fixed guideway for stubs, means to place stubs in succession on said guideway with their longitudinal axes in line with the guideway, means to blow a jet of air against the end of each plug located in the guideway to advance it lengthwise in the said guideway toward the space between the cigarettes, means to arrest temporarily each stub so propelled, and means to engage each stub so arrested and'to move it in a path intersecting said guideway, saidlast named means being arranged to transfer stubs to the means to convey cigarettes, and to insert them into spaces between ends of the said cigarettes.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,646,048 Molins July 21, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 970,401 France June 14, 1950 

